Chapter 100 - Standards

After training, Samuel decided that he would text J and tell him his decision since he would have a break when he went to go and take a shower.

He didn't expect that J would respond to him quickly but he was surprised that by the time he had finished showering and changing clothes that there was a message waiting for him from the other.

'Good boy, I knew you would make the right decision after taking some time to think about it.' He was going to reply to that text when the other sent him a second one.

'I think considering the situation that texting for now would work best. Let's take some time to get to know each other before we immediately get everything else.' This second text message made Samuel frown. He didn't really care about getting to know who this J was, he just wanted to find out what his mother was hiding from him and if so what was it. 

He texted back asking why he couldn't just tell him what he knew first and then they could continue talking after that. It seemed like a reasonable route to take in his opinion. There was a minute or two pause before he got the response. 

'Because I get the feeling that if I tell you what you want to know from the start that you won't bother staying in touch with me after that.'

'It's not like I won't tell you what you want to know, I just want to take some time to get to know each other beforehand. Quid pro quo'.  Was that really what this J wanted out of this? To get to know him?  He asked why before put his phone in his pocket. 

It was only the afternoon and there was still other things he needed to do for the day. He wasn't sure if Lena was planning on going to the office today, but he wanted to see if she was around and as what was going to be going over the next week. 

He knew that they would need to go back to the boutique soon to try on their outfits again after she had gotten the call saying that they were finished making the initial altercations and wanted to make sure that they didn't need to make any further changes. 

He was hoping soon that Zane would tell him that the promise ring would be ready to pick up. He would then need to figure out how to go and pick it up with Lena finding out. So far, he had never gone anywhere without the princess accompanying him. Though he had also never asked about the protocol for such a situation either though. 

Lena wasn't in her office that day though. She had been spending too many afternoons in her work office and she wanted to work somewhere more comfortable and thus had decided to set up on the second floor deck. She usually preferred the sunroom during these times, but since it wasn't too hot, she decided sitting outside would be a nice change. 

It was located on the right side of the second floor which on the opposite of where her and Samuel's room was located. It wasn't large in size but it was big enough to house have a beige futon, a white and blue stripped hammock was hanging on the furthest side and a black deck table with chairs had been placed towards the center. the wood that had been used to make the deck and for the rails and awning had been colored a light shade of burlywood. It was a pleasant color that didn't stand out too much but made sure that it kept the heat out. 

Since it was something that she had asked to have made later on, she was the only one who had a key to the deck as she considered it her own personal space. Though it was not used as often as the sunroom was. Because of this, she had to tell Samuel where it was located which was a touch confusing for him because the door that lead out to the deck was not any different than those of the other rooms on the second floor. 

"What were looking for me for?" Lena asked, not looking up from her computer. She had emails she needed to send and the rest of her schedule for her month to figure out.

"I brought the rest of the tiramisu because a little after lunch time, but I also wanted to see what was planned for the upcoming week." Samuel replied as he set down the piece of cake near her computer but not too close. 

"Things and more things are coming up." The princess replied as she glanced at the piece of cake. She needed to finish what she was working on before she could eat it.  Samuel decided to take the seat across from her with the other piece of cake he had brought. He couldn't deny that it was a rather nice place to enjoy the weather. 

"Are you planning on going to the office?" He asked after a moment of silence due to the princess being focused and him wanting to take in the sight of everything. 

"I probably won't today. There's is something that I wanted to talk with you about in regards to that though." She replied after a moment of silence following her finish sending the next email. 

"Something work related that you wanted to talk with me about?" He asked somewhat surprised since he didn't think of himself as having much of a hand in the work that Lena did aside from what he had been doing to help on the financial side. 

"Yes, it's a little bit family related for you but I wanted to put everything together before I brought it up to you." She told him as she closed her computer and grabbed one of the folders that had on the opposite side of her computer. She opened it up and looked through it to make sure it had all the correct information inside of it. 

"In this is a proposal I wanted to send to your uncle's company to ask if he would be willing to sell it to me for the amount of money listed her." The princess told him as she opened the folder to the page that showed the amount of money and what the proposal would be. 

"To clarify, I would be taking over the company, but aside from changes in policy and working to align their mission for what I am working towards, nothing else would change. I don't intend to fire employees or remove your uncle from the position of CEO. The goal would just be to work on expanding this business and within that to provide a larger opportunity for his company to grow independently." Samuel heard what she said but was quiet as he read over the proposal to better understand what she was talking about. 

"Why would you want to buy his company though?" Samuel asked after he had finished looking over it. He understood the most of what the proposal was saying, though there were a few terms and words he wasn't familiar with. Lena shrugged slightly as she took the folder back. 

"Partly because I know that the transportation is hard to stay in especially for smaller business such as the one that your uncle runs. He might be doing well no, but it won't be long before other bigger competitors come through and make business hard for him which would either force him to shut down his business or sell it for a fraction of the price that it might actually be worth." Lena explained, pausing for a second before she told him the other reason that she wanted to do it. 

"The other reason is because I don't like the way your aunt looks down on other people, especially your parents simply because her husband, your uncle happened to be more fortunate than your father was." 

"You would go that far over something like that? My aunt has been like that for as long as I can remember that I've just gotten used to it. It isn't that bad since my family spends less time around them now that she is busy with her own daughter." To him and his parents, it was trying at times to deal with his aunt, but they got accustom it and learned how to navigate it for the brief times that they had to share the same space such as birthdays or other holidays. 

"As I mentioned before, I'm not that fond of people like her. It's one thing to treat people on the outside that way, but another way to treat your own family that way." The princess responded as she put the folder down. 

"If anything, she should be more encouraging of her husband to reach out and help his brother get into a better position rather than keeping everything for themselves. It's not like they don't have enough to share." The more that Samuel heard her talk about family, the more he was beginning to realize that was where her heart was. 

She might not have made much care for those on the outside, but she had a different set of standards for those she considered to be family.